Thanks to the work of EL Keirnan, the state of Victoria passed a Bill in 1920 allowing municipalities to switch their rating base from net annual value to unimproved capital value rating (now known as site value rating).

At the outset of the 1990s, more than half of Victoria’s population lived in municipalities which had chosen to use EL Keirnan’s legislation to rate on land values only. This change thereby acted to penalise the holding of lots out of use and vacant for speculative purposes, and not to penalise those who built homes, factories, offices, shops, &c.

In the 1990s, the Kennett Victorian Government offered municipalities what amounted to bribes were they to switch away from site value rating or net annual value rating to capital value rating. All but two councils have since made this unfortunate shift, and no Victorian municipality now uses site value as its rating base.

The states of New South Wales and Queensland continue exclusively to employ site value rating for municipal rating purposes.